This situation of criminality created in my subconscious a shock that led to far more questions than answers. One of those questions was, Why had all these people murdered themselves?

This situation of war set back my entire school career so that the primary teaching that I should have finished in 1993 was not completed until 1995. Everybody – woman, child and man – had been enrolled in the war without mercifulness and life was placed on hold.

Like all young Hutu of that time, I had been obliged to approach the new-born rebellion that told us to be ready to save and defend our democracy. I participated heavily in both military and political activities during that rebellion. I was fifteen years old when I join rebellion movement in 1994.

This situation pushed me to notice more events, bloody events that took many innocent lives. I realized then that the population constituted a non-negligible strength that would be as great for the destruction as for peaceful rebuilding. My family has been completely affected by the situation. My dad, my mother, and my small brothers and sisters went into exile in Tanzania at the same moment that I entered to the secondary school in 1996.

I stayed in Burundi with my elder sister Esperance and my small brother Onesphore. The rest of my family, all fled into exile, had to help us with our academic scholarships. My aunt Edith and her family went into exile to Nairobi in Kenya, my paternal uncle Deo went into exile in Geneva, and my maternal uncle Nestor travelled to London. I and my two siblings attended secondary studies under these conditions.

My sister and I went to start a secondary school in the Lycée located in our native commune. As we arrived, we were savagely tortured by the students there. The only reason was that we were Hutus. In my class, we were twenty Hutus but only seven of us stayed, including my sister and I. Every day, the government army went with our fellow Tutsi students to kill people who were in different villages surrounding our high school. When they were back, they forced us to wash their clothes and their blood-drenched knives. We did that for fear of being killed if we refuse to do so.

Our vision

CEDAC vision is a peaceful and sustainable developed world. Some of the organisation's members have directly participated in armed conflict, while others have been victims of conflict through their indirect participation. CEDAC wants to interlink all victims of conflict within and across borders. Our vision seeks to eliminate conflict and sustain peace by creating means of reintegration for ex-combatants and others indirectly affected by conflict.

Our mission

Our mission is to support all victims of armed conflict. We seek to reduce armed violence through job creation, as well as offering other types of victim assistance such as psychosocial support to facilitate reintegration into society.

CEDAC values

At CEDAC, we hold our values of transparency, tolerance and honesty in the highest regard, because without these values we would not be able to survive as a not-for profit aid organisation. For example, without transparency our finical supporters, those involved in our projects and other stakeholders would not be able to hold us accountable. This in turn leads to an environment of mistrust.

It goes without saying that we uphold and value honesty at CEDAC. We believe that acting openly and honesty is not only good practice, but is essential for working in development and aid.

CEDAC is built also under a tolerance basis. This implies a high degree of acceptance for differences of races and ethnicity, background and diversity of ideas. Thus, CEDAC is an environment where contribution is reserved for everyone.